ENGLAND || Peak Disctrict, Lake District & Yorkshire Dales - travel vlog (Chatsworth, Coniston)

So this is a little different from our normal videos. Due to the COVID-19 Crisis, our travel plans have had to go on hold, but with some elements of the lockdown eased, we headed to the three National Parks closest to Manchester, our home city, for socially-distanced days out, avoiding the crowds and looking for ways to see the sites without breaking the rules. Take a look at our itinerary below:
Day One: Peak District – The Roaches, Lud’s Church (too busy to access), Ilford, Dovedale (too busy to access), Chatsworth (closed but grounds open, ticketed parking only), Cave Dale, Winatt’s Pass.
Day Two: Lake District - Coniston Water, Wray Castle (closed but grounds open), Windermere, Elterwater, Rydal Cave (too busy to access), Aira Force Falls (one-way system in place), Ullswater, Castlerigg Stone Circle.
Day Three: Yorkshire Dales – Bolton Abbey (too busy to access, plus ticketed parking only), Malham Cove (too busy to access from Malham, but accessible from additional car parks), Ribblehead Viaduct, Hardraw Force Waterfall (closed), Aysgarth Falls.
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Transcript:
Jeremy and I are based in Manchester and we’re incredibly lucky to have so many national parks on our doorstep. The Peaks, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales are all within two hours’ drive of our house so we thought, now that the COVID-19 Crisis has forced us to stay nearby, it was high time we explored all three.
Travelling back to our house each night, our biggest aim was to see as much of the areas as we could without ever having to compromise social distancing. We highly advocate following the rules; keeping a 2 metre distance, avoiding busy places and wearing a face mask, so here are eight things we learned about how to socially distance on a day out in the English countryside.
1: Avoid really popular spots like the plague. Some places are absolutely heaving due to their popularity. If you read online that somewhere is the “best spot in the area”, then it’s likely everyone else has read it too. For example, we went to Dovedale on a Wednesday morning having read it was the prettiest spot in the Peak District and it was completely full. Even if you find yourself a car parking space, it would be impossible to maintain social distancing there, with crowds on the paths, queues to use facilities and parking machines that every person there will have touched on arrival. We drove away as soon as we arrived.
2: Anything with an entrance fee is shut. If access to a site involves a ticket office or access through a building, it will not be open. Check websites before you go to avoid disappointment. However…
3: Some really popular monuments still have their grounds open, for example Chatsworth in the Peaks and Bolton Abbey in the Dales, but you have to book parking slots online. It keeps the numbers down, but you do need to plan in advance and in the case of Chatsworth, you can’t access the landscaped gardens, just the surrounding parkland.
4: National Trust car parks will let you pay for parking by texting a donation rather than touching a pay machine, which is a Godsend if you’ve forgotten to bring your hand sanitiser.
5: Some places have got a one-way system on paths to allow waterfall trails etc to remain open. For the most part, people follow the rules and that means you don’t have to climb into a hedge to keep your distance from people coming in the opposite direction. Although you’ve got to be very patient at times.
6: Look out for second car parks. Our trip to Malham in the Dales, for example, seemed like it wasn’t going to happen because the official car park in Malham was completely full and the village teaming with non-socially distanced people. However we took to Google Maps and discover that two miles away there are other car parks and spots on the road where you can park away from other people. Admittedly it meant a slightly longer walk (in this case, down a steep hill to Malham Cove), but at least you can be away from people. Even though the walk back up the hill to the car nearly killed us.
7: Be flexible and have multiple ideas for where you want to visit. We had to scrap around 50% of our ideas in each of the Parks due to sights being closed or realising on arrival that social distancing was impossible. Remember that no sight is worth putting yourself at risk for. And if something is shut or limiting access, it’s because they can’t open safely to everyone that wants to visit it.
8: If you can, deliberately avoid going on a weekend to avoid additional crowds.

Видео ENGLAND || Peak Disctrict, Lake District & Yorkshire Dales - travel vlog (Chatsworth, Coniston) канала 15 Degrees North